The present invention relates to a display apparatus and display control method of displaying input data together with an icon representing the contents of the data.
Generally, an electronic information device capable of storing personal information containing arbitrary input data and managing it, e.g., a personal computer or electronic notebook, receives schedule data, address book data, telephone directory data, and the like, searches the data for desired data, and displays the found data as needed.
For example, each schedule data is a combination of a date, time, and contents. The schedule data are sorted and stored in chronological order from the current time, and desired data is retrieved and displayed.
However, in a conventional electronic information device which only sorts a number of schedule data in the order of date and time, searches the data, and displays retrieved data, the specific contents of each schedule data must be confirmed only by reading, e.g., the headline of the data. For this reason, it is very cumbersome to confirm the date and time of a specific schedule.
In devices disclosed in E.P. No. 358301 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,572,233, one of a plurality of icons is selected in correspondence with schedule data, and the selected icon is displayed together with the schedule data. However, it is tedious for the user to select an optimum icon from a plurality of icons in accordance with the contents of schedule data.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a display apparatus and display control method capable of automatically assigning an icon to data in accordance with the contents of the data to allow a user to recognize the contents of the data at a glance.
In order to achieve the above object, according to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a display apparatus for displaying data together with an icon representing contents of the data, comprising a data input section for inputting data, an icon data storage section which stores a plurality of icon data and keywords respectively corresponding to the icon data, a keyword detection section which detects matching between the data input by the data input section and a keyword stored in the icon data storage section, and a display control section which adds, to the input data, icon data stored in the icon data storage section in correspondence with a keyword which is detected by the keyword detection section to match the data input by the data input section, and for displaying the obtained data.
According to the above arrangement, matching between input data and a keyword stored in an icon data storage section is detected. Icon data stored in the icon data storage section in correspondence with the keyword detected to match the input data is added to the input data and displayed. Hence, an icon appropriate to data contents can be automatically added to the data, so the data can be displayed to allow the user to recognize the contents at a glance.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out hereinafter.